Elegance and sensuality mark out Richard Alston’s new version of Carmen for Scottish Ballet. The key pairing of the ballet are excellently cast, with Daniel Davidson a willowy and all-too easily led Don Jose and Martina Forioso’s Carmen positively predatory in her sexuality. Unfortunately, William Smith’s Escamillo, the Toreador and third element of the love triangle, is a touch hesitant where absolute mastery is demanded.
Alston’s use of Rodion Shchedrin’s short suite, extracted from Bizet’s opera, demands quick story-telling and his choreography makes light work of it. The female members of the corps de ballet are particularly tuned into the changing moods - from the light-hearted banter between the cigarette girls and the soldiers, to the dark premonitions of Vassilissa Levtonova’s menacing travelling Gypsy and the knife fight over a stolen fan that sees Carmen locked up.
Carmen’s final persuading of Don Jose to kill her doesn’t quite work in narrative terms and, Davidson apart, the male dancers are asked to perform just beyond their comfort zone, but overall this compelling and attractive ballet should easily enter the company’s repertoire.
Already ensconced is Ashley Page’s Cheating, Lying, Stealing. The narrative theme might echo Carmen when presented as a double bill, while the physicality and precision of Page’s choreography certainly complements Alston’s flowing lines and is well-mastered by the company. However, the hard core modernity of its music - performed live by the ever-excellent Icebreaker - makes the juxtaposition too grating to allow both pieces to live on after the evening has finished.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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